


You Heard Me

by wematch



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Kissing, M/M, Making Out, Nightmares, Smoking, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, rooftop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-25
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-08-29 10:55:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16742653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wematch/pseuds/wematch
Summary: This is how Neil discovers his soulmate.Soulmate’s AU based on the idea that you have a quote written on your body that is important to your relationship.





	You Heard Me

Neil follows Andrew and the others inside the stadium. As they get closer he can hear everyone in the locker room already chatting; they enter the room and take their usual seats while they wait for Wymack to arrive and start practice.

A few moments pass, and he hears Nicky call Allison to get her attention. He sees her look up from her phone and Nicky stretching his arm to show her something on his own phone, Allison snorts and nudges Renee at her side to look at it too.

“Did you buy it?” Renee asks him after she glances at the phone.

Nicky smirks before he answers. “Of course, I couldn’t leave that beauty at the store.”

Dan looks over Renee’s shoulder to see what they’re talking about and then adds, “I like it, Nicky.”

“Thanks Cap,” Nicky answers with a bright smile, clearly satisfied with their approval.

Neil, having been at the store with Nicky, already knows what picture he’s showing the others, so he lets his eyes trail off to follow Dan’s movement as she begins to lean against Matt. As she gets settled, he sees the fond look they share for a moment and then he sees Matt bring Dan’s hand to his mouth and kiss it; Neil immediately looks away, feeling like he’s intruding. Matt and Dan had figured out they’re soulmates before Neil even joined the team, he’s happy that they found each other but every time he sees them together he thinks about the quote written on his chest that indicates that he has a soulmate out there too.

Neil’s soulmate mark had appeared when he was about nine. Back then, he didn’t understand the quote ingrained on his skin; he knew what it represented, but he couldn’t understand the meaning behind the words. He remembers waiting for his father to leave the house before showing it to his mother. He remembers questioning her about it’s meaning only to have his shirt immediately pulled down to cover it. Growing up, Neil quickly learned to always hide his soulmate mark; in his house it represented a weakness waiting to be exploited. A means to an end.

He had spent countless nights thinking about what the words written on his body could mean, and he still isn’t sure what him or his soulmate could be referring to: was it about his family, or was it about something that had happened to his soulmate?

Up until he ran away with his mother, he used to imagine meeting his soulmate and all the ways that could change his life, but by that time he figured out that whoever his soulmate was, that person was far better off without him in their life.

So, he tried to stop thinking about his soulmate. Because finding his soulmate meant a life on the run and a death sentence extended to that person as well, and Neil couldn’t bear the thought of that.

After practice, Neil’s quiet in the drive back to the dorm, and once there he quietly follows Andrew to the roof. Andrew takes a long hard look at him before he passes him a cigarette, he doesn’t say a word so they sit down and stare at campus beneath them.

All this thinking about soulmates makes Neil feel like a mess. He can’t help but remember the warmth on his skin when his mark first appeared; just thinking about it gives him the sudden urge to scratch his chest where it is, but he clenches his fist and doesn’t do it. What he needs to do is to stop thinking about it, so Neil closes his eyes, counts to ten in three different languages, and tries to breathe in the smell of smoke in the air to calm down.

It’s only when Andrew finally turns to his side and kisses him hard that Neil stops thinking about his soulmate, he can only think about Andrew’s lips demanding his attention.

This thing with Andrew had started only a few weeks ago. And it surprised Neil to realize he wanted it, because he had never been interested in people this way before. But there was something about Andrew, something that drew Neil to him. And he thought that maybe it was just fine to experiment with whatever this was. And it was okay if Andrew hated him.

It was easier that way.

 

***

 

Weeks pass in a blur. And one night, Neil suddenly wakes up from a nightmare. He opens his eyes and scans the room to see where he is. Once he realizes that he’s in the Fox Tower, that it had been just another nightmare, he tries to calm down his breathing.

He reminds himself that the countdown on his phone has ended and he’s somehow still alive and Riko is not. That Nathaniel had died in Baltimore with his father and his real name now is Neil Abram Josten. He repeats it in his head over and over again until his breathing eventually calms down.

Neil can feel Andrew staring down at him, but he only looks in Andrew’s direction when the other starts to climb down his bunk bed. He watches as Andrew grabs a hoodie and then exits the bedroom leaving the door slightly ajar. Neil takes a deep breath, sits up, and runs a hand over his tousled hair before he gets up to follow Andrew into the living room, closing the door behind himself so that the light doesn’t disturb the others.

Andrew looks barely awake as he slowly walks around, puts on his shoes, and grabs a jacket on his way out. Neil does the same and follows Andrew outside. They climb the stairs to the rooftop and sit side by side in silence for hours like they’ve done countless times before.

Eventually, Neil begins to talk about nothing in particular to take his mind off things and when the sun starts to rise and he begins to feel the faintest warmth reaching him, he justs looks to the side to study Andrew. He doesn’t know how long he stays there, just watching Andrew staring ahead with his eyes barely open, but at some point Andrew slowly turns his head to the side to face him. They stare at each other for a moment, and then Andrew brings his hand to Neil’s chin and pulls him closer.

“Yes or no, Neil?”

Neil inches closer until he can feel Andrew’s warm breath on his face. “Yes,” he answers and closes the distance between them.

Neil loses track of time, it seems that time doesn’t move the same way whenever he’s with Andrew. He doesn’t know how long they’ve stayed there kissing, all he knows is that he can’t get enough of it. But next thing he knows, he’s lying down on the floor with Andrew on top of him and Andrew stills and shoves Neil’s hand away from the grip he had on his hair. “What–“ Neil starts, unsure of what just happened as Andrew sits up.

For a brief second he sees a dark expression in Andrew’s face that he can’t quite understand, but then he goes back to a blank face just as fast. “I won’t do this when you’re like that,” Andrew tells him.

Neil sits up, and leaves a few inches separating them. “I was just thinking about–”

“I don’t care,” Andrew interrupts him, “I need to hear your consent or I’m done.”

 _Fuck_. Andrew had asked something and he was too lost in his head thinking about Andrew that he didn’t even register it. “I know–“

“We’re done here,” Andrew declares and begins to walk away.

“Wait, Andrew–”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Andrew interrupts him again and turns around to face him. He clenches his fists and spits, “I– I won’t be like them. I won’t let you let me be.”

And they both freeze. At that moment Neil feels like the world has just tilted. Had Andrew really just said this? He stares at the surprised expression on Andrew’s face that he knows it must be a mirror of his own. He opens his mouth but he doesn’t know what to say so he closes it and tries again, “What did you just say?”

“You heard me,” Andrew states and takes a step closer. “Let me see it.”

Neil freezes, staring at Andrew as he comes to a stop mere inches away from him. Could this be really happening? Had Andrew truly said the sentence that Neil has written on his chest, the sentence he knows by heart, and obsessed and analyzed for countless years? He hears his name being called and focuses back  on Andrew’s eyes searching his own. “Let me see it,” Andrew repeats, and Neil understands that he needs this reassurance, that they both need proof this is actually happening.

He takes a deep breath and pulls his hoodie up enough to show his chest. Neil feels exposed like this showing all his scars. Andrew had already seen and touched some of them before, but Neil has been careful not to let him, or anyone see most of his scars - especially his mark. But he puts those thoughts aside when he sees Andrew moving his hand up in the direction of the letters carved into his skin, pausing with a finger over it as if what he’s seeing could not be real.

“You can touch it, if you want,“ Neil tells him, and Andrew glances for a brief second to his face and then he returns his attention to the soulmate mark in front of him. Andrew runs a finger through it, following the words written above Neil’s heart, the light touch leaving goosebumps on Neil’s skin and making his heart beat a mile a minute that he’s sure that Andrew can feel.

He studies Andrew’s expression while he traces the letters on his skin but he can’t understand what is going on on his head at the moment. When Andrew’s hand slowly drops to his side, Neil lets his hoodie down. He can still feel the ghost of Andrew’s finger on his skin so he takes a deep breath to focus. “Where’s yours?” Neil asks quietly.

Andrew takes his eyes away from Neil’s chest to his face and for a moment they stare at each other. Then Andrew begins to pull off one of his armbands. And there it is, with the scars all around it, the exact same quote Neil has written on his chest on Andrew’s arm, I won’t be like them. I won’t let you let me be. He’s seeing it but it’s still hard to believe that this is actually happening. But then he thinks about Andrew. He thinks about the keys, the trust, and the kisses. And he can’t help when a tentative smile begins to form.

Andrew is his soulmate, and everything is starting to make sense now.

 


End file.
